Tease
by Madartiste
Summary: Natsu and Lucy are getting married, and it's Gray's job as the best man to throw a killer bachelor party. Now if he can just convince the bride-to-be to go along with his plans… (One-shot)


**_Summary:_**_Natsu and Lucy are getting married, and it's Gray's job as the best man to throw a killer bachelor party. Now if he can just convince the bride-to-be to go along with his plans…_

**_Author's Notes:_**_Not even sure what to think of this one anymore. It's just mindless fluff from start to finish, but good grief was it a chore to write. I don't think it ever quite gelled together the way I wanted it to. It's pretty messy and writing about people attempting to do sexy dancing is _hard_. Hopefully it's still enjoyable. PS. Happy was Natsu's first choice for best man, but Happy had his heart set on being the ring bearer instead._

* * *

><p>"There'll be booze, right?" Bixlow asked curiously.<p>

"Of course," Gray answered, flipping through venue pamphlets and entertainment advertisements. He'd arranged piles of brochures according to their contents in a circle around himself on the floor. One of the guild hall tables would've been a better option, but after a brief brawl had scattered them everywhere, he decided to just push them around near where they landed.

Granted, the whisky in his bloodstream might've made that seem like the best choice, but who was he to argue?

"What about live music?" Laxus put in with Gajeel nodding approvingly over his shoulder.

The ice make wizard frowned. "I was thinking about it, but I figured just an audio setup might be more practical. No need to terrify a band if things get weird." And with Fairy Tail there was always the chance things could get _very_ weird.

Wakaba blew out a stream of smoke with an amused smirk, leaning his elbows on the worn wood tabletop and peering down at the younger brunette. "Strippers?"

"Are you nuts?" Elfman looked horrified, mirroring the expression on Jellal's tattooed face. "We're manly, but -"

"Yeah, no," Gray said definitively. "Too many of us would be dead by morning if the girls found out." This was meant to be fun, not a suicide pact.

With a disappointed sniff, Wakaba whined, "But it's supposed to be a bachelor party. What's a bachelor party without one last hurrah for the single life the groom is leaving behind?"

"_Your_ wife might not be a scary badass, but I'd rather not see what sort of horrible things _Erza_ would do to Jellal if she found out we had strippers at our party." Gray exchanged determined nods with the blue haired ex-fugitive. "Actually, I don't want to know what horrible thing she'd do to _me_ either."

"It's a shame," Macao said thoughtfully, brushing his index finger along his mustache. "Natsu sure does seem to like the naked ladies."

"No, no," Wakaba corrected and gestured with his pipe for emphasis. "Natsu really likes the naked _Lucy_. He's pretty particular."

Opening his mouth to reconfirm his position on the suggestion, Gray was suddenly struck by a idea. He was the best man, and it _was_ his responsibility, according to Erza's stern and slightly terrifying instruction, to throw an enjoyable party for Natsu. This hadn't been as easy a task as he'd originally imagined since most of the dragon slayer's favorite things involved extensive property damage or consuming quantities of food that would bankrupt the guild if left unchecked.

And naked Lucy. Wakaba was not wrong on that aspect.

"No strippers," Jellal stressed upon seeing the speculative expression on the ice make wizard's face. "Juvia would drown you in tears."

"Right," he agreed quickly. "No strippers…"

At least not for _them._

* * *

><p>"You want me to <em>what<em>?" Lucy stared at the fidgeting dark haired wizard.

He held up his hands placatingly, not wanting to get Regulus punched into next week if Loke sensed his owner's distress and decided to gate himself in. "It's fine! You're getting married, right? It'd be just for him. The rest of us wouldn't even be in the room."

"At his bachelor party, though? Isn't that a little… _weird_?" The blonde scrunched up her nose in a very obvious show of distaste.

There had always been the possibility that it would come to this, Gray mused. And there was the continuing possibility that he'd get a Lucy-kick in the head for what he was about to say. "I was trying to think of Natsu's favorite things to do, but those pretty much include eating enough to make himself sick, starting fires, and tearing holes in buildings. The food we can probably do, but the other stuff isn't really party material."

"And how is that related…" Her eyebrows jumped and then dropped into a thunderous glower. "Wait. His favorite things to _do_? Is that an innuendo?"

He took a small step back. "Sooooort of? Wait, wait!" His still extended hands waved desperately to hold off the rather vindictive glint that had taken residence in her brown eyes. "You're pretty much his favorite person ever! I just thought, you know, something special with you would have a lot more meaning than… uh… playing darts or whatever?"

Lucy studied him with the same kind of penetrating stare a scientist gives a specimen under a microscope, scanning for any unsavory intentions, caveats, or hidden potential consequences. There were times that he was quite thankful for his ability to mercilessly crush any sign of emotion under his practiced veil of indifference, and this was definitely one of them. Gray did not fancy getting a high heeled shoe to the side of his head today.

"Weeeellll," she drawled, expression wavering between skepticism and embarrassment, "I guess… If it's just for him. Do you really think he'd like that?"

"Yes," he said with as much conviction as he could muster. "Yes I do."

Gray Fullbuster would either be hailed as the greatest best man in the history of Fiore or be shunned for the rest of his life by two of his teammates. It was worth the risk.

* * *

><p>"Why am I doing this again?" Natsu drummed his fingers anxiously on the arm of the chair Ice Bastard had made him sit in. Normally he wouldn't be bothered by such weird behavior from his friends, but the blindfold was <em>just<em> that extra touch of strange and it made him worry.

"I told you. It's a surprise." Gray tugged on the knot for the cloth covering his friend's eyes with more force than was strictly necessary. Seriously. The guy really didn't appreciate all the trouble that a best man went through to throw a great bachelor party.

Truth be told, the dragon slayer wasn't terribly hindered by the removal of his eyesight. His nose and ears were just as valuable for sensing a situation, so being blinded wasn't likely to hold him back in whatever crazy thing Frosty had planned. "Is this one of those party games that Wakaba was saying we should play?"

Hesitating for just a moment, the ice mage said, "Yeah. We'll go with that. Just sit right there and wait." Natsu tracked the other man's movements by sound, wincing when the door slammed. What the heck was the Snow Queen up to this time?

The fire wizard sat still for only a short time before his natural proclivity for motion got the better of him. He stretched out his legs, slouching deep into the seat before suddenly shifting to sit forward and play an impromptu beat with his palms slapping lightly against his knees. Waiting was not a thing he was good at.

A barely audible click and scuff brought his head up, tilted towards the soft sound. He could tell it was the other door to the room opening and shutting, but it was the most familiar and pleasant scent that really tipped him off. His face split into an unfettered grin. "Lucy! What're you doing here?"

She heaved an aggravated sigh. "I told him this wouldn't work. You might as well take off that blindfold, then."

Quickly complying, Natsu pulled off the cloth and then spent a few seconds blinking at the sight that greeted him. His fiance was wearing a long, wine colored dress with a slit up the side that he recognized immediately as one of her favorites. Oddly, she'd chosen to accessorize it with elbow length gloves, a feathered boa around her neck, and a rhinestone studded garter on her exposed thigh. Her blond hair was artfully piled on top of her head, and she favored him with a sultry smile.

"What's all that extra stuff?" he asked.

This apparently was not the correct thing to say as her come hither expression turned chilly in an instant. "It's a present. For you. That I put a lot of effort into." Her hands settled on her hips, and something about the stance told Natsu it was time to be grateful.

"Cool!" the dragon slayer chirped, and Lucy sighed again.

Deciding to just accept the behavior as typical, she mentally psyched herself up again. Plastering the most provocative look she could summon up on her face, the celestial wizard started to sway her hips rhythmically. Raising her arms elegantly over her head, she gave a slow shimmy before spinning around. Her enticing dance came to an abrupt halt when she heard a snort and then muffled snickers.

"What are you doing?" Natsu tried valiantly to hide his amusement behind his hands, but Lucy's vicious glare just made him laugh harder. "That was really weird."

The woman inhaled sharply, eyebrows drawn down in irritation. "It's called a strip tease, you jerk, and if you can't appreciate -"

"Hey, no! Don't get mad! I'm sorry." He waved his hands to indicate she should continue. He knew full well what stripping was and connecting that activity with his future wife instead of the Snow Cone seemed like it could only be a good thing. "Go on. I wanna see your fancy dance."

Lucy sniffed indignantly, but the excitement lighting up the dragon slayer's face was enough to build her courage back up. She snaked her arms back up, giving an exaggerated circular roll of her pelvis before falling into a relaxed pendulum swing of her hips. Letting her hands drift back down and seizing one end of the boa, she slowly drew the fluffy object off her neck and tossed it aside.

With short, precise tugs the celestial wizard loosened the fingers of her left glove and slid the satin off, flicking it over her shoulder. She repeated the process with her other glove, taking a moment to run the soft material slowly along her cheek before it too was discarded. Now she had Natsu's undivided attention, and his eyes seemed torn between concentrating on her hands or following the sinuous gyrations of her hips.

Good. She'd spent a lot of time practicing this in front of the mirror and it would be a shame for all that effort to go to waste. Leaning back, he watched her raptly. It was quite obvious her little performance was having the desired effect from the tell tale twitch of his muscles and the way he shifted in his seat. Time to crank things up a notch.

He jumped when she planted her right foot, with it's spiked black heel, on the edge of his chair in the space between his splayed legs. Glancing up, he caught the audacious smirk on her face as she hiked up the slit in her skirt just a bit farther to display the sparkling garter.

Taking her expression as a dare, The dragon slayer hesitantly laid his warm hands against the flesh of her thigh and slid the elastic band slowly at the same time Lucy drew her leg back. It slipped down her skin pleasingly, leaving Natsu clutching the object and wanting just a bit more time with her smooth thigh.

She offered him another smoldering glance, turning in a lazy circle and showing off the plunging back of her dress. With two deft plucking motions, the celestial wizard pulled the pins out of her hair and let it tumble down in a wash of golden strands. Her fingers reached for the bow tying the halter straps of her dress together, but was startled when she heard the sudden creaking of Natsu's chair right before his hands closed over hers.

"I… don't think you should do that," he whispered, breath hot and humid against her ear.

"W-what? Did I do it wrong?" She let her arms fall limply back to her sides and pushed her lips out in a disappointed pout. "Man, I really worked on on this too."

Laughing softly, the dragon slayer let his fingers linger on her upper arms for just a moment before stepping away. "Nah, you kinda did everything right… I think. I've never seen a strip tease before, but that…" He met her eyes when she turned to look at him. "Wow, Lucy."

"Then why did you want me to stop?" she asked, pout turning down into a small, confused frown.

"Uh, well," Natsu hedged, "If you kept going I might've, you know… I'm not sure I could control myself. I thought I'd be fine, but you're really good at this." He shrugged and gave her an apologetic smile.

Brown eyes studied him intently before Lucy puffed out her cheeks. "Is that why you've been freaking out everytime you catch me naked lately? You used to barge in without even thinking about it, but ever since we got engaged it's like you're terrified of seeing me without clothes."

"Jeez, I haven't been that bad," he grumbled.

"Natsu, last week you tripped over the couch and broke my coffee table in half because the knot on my towel started to slip after my shower."

"I just wanted…" He made a noise of frustration and scrubbed his fingers through his already messy pink locks. "Your first time is supposed to be special, right? I didn't want to screw everything up because I couldn't wait."

She stared at him for another long moment and then sighed gustily. "Do you _always_ have to be so damned sweet about these things? C'mere." Wrapping her arms around his torso, Lucy laid her head against his chest and snuggled into him. "The only thing I feel bad about here is that I waited so long to tell you how I felt."

Natsu tucked her head under his chin, feeling that peculiar thrum of contentment only she could generate washing through his limbs. "I wish you'd told me sooner too - Ow!" He flinched when she jabbed him in the ribs, but snickered anyway. "We were both kinda dumb, but we figured it out in the -"

Breaking off his comment, the dragon slayer tilted his head towards the door. After a second of listening, he rolled his eyes.

"They're eavesdropping out there, aren't they?" Lucy asked, sounding only moderately aggravated. Fairy Tail wizards weren't exactly known for respecting each other's privacy, so she shouldn't be surprised.

"Yep."

She hummed thoughtfully, pulling away to look in the same direction. "I'm torn between making it sound like we're having crazy loud sex or pretending to have a huge fight and breaking up."

He snorted, not able to stop the grin that split his face. "Man, you're so weird."

"When you proposed that was one of the reasons you gave for being in love with me," she reminded him, lips struggling against a smile. "You should probably get back in there and tell Gray he's being a really good best man. I think it took some courage for him to ask me to do this."

She had a point, he supposed. Lucy could be scary when riled, and anyone willing to risk her formidable wrath just for a friend's bachelor party deserved some commendation. "Hey, maybe we could try this again after the wedding? So I can see the whole show?"

"Hmm," the woman tapped her pink painted nail against her chin in pretend consideration. "I might be able to arrange that if you ask nicely."

"Don't ever change," he told her, grazing a kiss against her temple.

Lucy smiled warmly and leaned in to give him a peck on the lips. "Only if you promise first."


End file.
